Looks like the boffins at Reaction Engines have done it!. They've built a working intercooler that can cool incoming air quickly enough to then use it as propellant in a rocket engine, reducing the need to bring (heavy) oxygen along on the craft. This is the trickiest part of building an air-breathing rocket engine, so it's quite the break-through. The BBC has a piece as well.

Imagine what would happen if they got Skylon built, and at the same time SpaceX managed a reusable F9/FH?

_________________Say, can you feel the thunder in the air? Just like the moment ’fore it hits – then it’s everywhereWhat is this spell we’re under, do you care? The might to rise above it is now within your sphereMachinae Supremacy – Sid Icarus

James, your pessimism is most displeasing to me. If we hast not seen the success of Spacex, and such rocket companies as there may be, perhaps t'would be reasonable. But such is not the case. No, an optimistic outlook is what is required here - vive l'cool rocket plane!

_________________“Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.” -Anonymous

SpaceX is quite conservative and conventional in both it's technical and business models. It's really just a refinement and more efficient employment of what has been done for decades. Probably the reason that they have been able to find the investors and people to make real flying hardware.

While the idea is cool, and I really hope it works out, it's functionality is limited to earth orbit, while SpaceX can potentially go to Mars, without all kinds of intermediate stages in LEO.

But I think there are room for more than one contestant.SpaceX is still my favorite though, mainly because their stuff is flying! And they keep putting out new cool stuff.

Seriously, I read somewhere that Elon Musk is talking about 80,000 people settling Mars each year! If it was anyone else . . . But has been so successful, and he has both the money and the talent, who knows?

_________________“Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.” -Anonymous

While I do really greatly desire all the capabilities that the skylon aspire to, I'm very skeptical (skeptical not pessimistic) about it's abilitis to achieve them. I humbly admit my ignorance on the proposed exact working of the craft but it's difficult to believe that wings so small could generate enough lift to get the plane off the ground. And to nitpick isn't an "air breathing rocket" just a ram jet? The foundation of the Skylons success seems to be the engines and until a full scale working model is constructed it's still just a dream. A worthy one though and I hope they keep pursuing it.

If they can get it working, it will be fully reusable with only the costs of consumables (and the amortization of development and building) between launches.

SpaceX is going for fully reusable as well, though I guess the faring will not be reusable, but I even read something about moving the unpressurized trunk of the dragon into the capsule it self, which I guess means the solar panels as well (but not quite sure). In that case the Falcon 9 with the Dragon should be just as reusable, as far as I can tell, though it would need some assembly before the next launch, unless they can land the second stage on top of the first, but I don't think they are going to do that just yet.

The Skylon would probably be a lot better for bringing down stuff like satellites or perhaps mined minerals, but at the moment that does not seem that relevant.

Just remembered there is an intermediate section between the first and second stage on the F9, I don't know if they have any visions for that.

But only the kind of reusable as the Shuttle STS. You get the components back, but you basically have to completely disassemble, overhaul, and rebuild the stack again. About the only part worth doing that for are the engines. For everything else it's cheaper to toss in the ocean and build a new one. It is a drawback of the conventional rocket configuration, and SpaceX is going to have to invest in a completely different architecture to get true reusability.

Skylon is being designed from the beginning to have a more "airliner" like turn around. All of the systems that have the next-generation (20-30 years down the road)as their target have this as a feature.

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Dragon should be just as reusable, as far as I can tell, though it would need some assembly before the next launch

I believe Dragon capsules get completely torn down to the pressure hull and rebuilt with a new TPS and heatshield for each flight.

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The Skylon would probably be a lot better for bringing down stuff like satellites or perhaps mined minerals, but at the moment that does not seem that relevant.

By the time Skylon is ready for service, that might be more valuable than launching.